Graham testimony: Valone Initiative team and personal mental health challenges
Graham describes the seven-person Valone Initiative team that does more than claims processing, sitting with veterans and sensing mental health struggles. He discloses being service-connected for mental health himself, describes the roller coaster of ebbs and flows, and emphasizes veterans need a hand up not a handout.
Another thing I will throw this out there as veterans, there's seven of us on a team for the Blown Veterans Initiative that work for the VFW.
We don't just simply do claims, but we're also there to sit with the
veterans as they come into the office and
We can, as veterans ourselves, we can kind of sense it, that they have certain things going on.
And I'll be open about this.
I'm also service-connected for mental health.
So it's a little tough.
It's not really one-size-fits-all type of thing.